In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, something amazing was happening to New York City’s urban youth; they began to deviate from the cultural norms and embrace new, ’strange’ practices like graffiti, breakdance, and hip-hop. Martha Cooper, a photo-journalist from New York City, captured on film the entire movement in its infancy. All of this was happening at a time when society viewed the movement as asinine, idiotic, ridiculous, and even threatening. Most people thought that ‘real’ art was in galleries, not alleys; ‘real’ dance belonged in ballrooms, not street corners; ‘real’ music emerged from guitars, not beat machines. Take a look at this fascinating video that documents everything Martha Cooper accomplished from 1979-1984 in Hip Hop Files.

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